Happy Hour At The Academic Lounge
By James Cummins
“Men don’t like
men. Maybe
it’s something we
got taught, or
ate, but if you
like women, you
don’t like men.”
“Or maybe you
don’t like women,
either?”
“But would that
mean you like
men secretly, or
unconsciously,
or both?”
“Maybe it means
you like women
secretly, too?
That is, after
working through
the illusion of
liking them to the
illusion of secretly
liking men?”
“Can you like
anyone without
wanting to have
sex with him?
I mean, her?”
“Are you saying
the illusion of
liking men and
the illusion of
liking non-men
are the same as
hating everybody,
only reversed?”
“What do you
want to reverse
here, my dear?”
“Maybe the reverse
of the reverse
is what we want
to want, I mean,
secretly, so—”
“—we can always
consider it a
game! Yes! These
black leather
accoutrements—”
“—these nipple
weights you wouldn’t
want to hang on a
woman, after all,
because you like
her—”
“—but which
seem just what
a man deserves!”
“Or, when you
think about it,
a woman …”